Henrique da Costa Mecking was born in Santa Cruz do Sul. He learned chess at the age of 6. He won his state championship at the age of 11. In 1965, when just thirteen years old, he won his country's championship, 2.5 points more than 2nd place. For this victory, many chess critics hailed him as "the next Fischer," referring to the fact that Robert James Fischer had won the US championship at fourteen. Mecking also won the Brazil championship in 1965 and 1967, never playing in another Brazilian championship, except for the 2011 edition (in which he placed third). In 1966, he was South American champion (jointly) with Julio Bolbochan, Oscar Panno and Alberto Foguelman. He played in the Sousse Interzonal (1967) at the age of 15 and won the Sousse speed championship. Mecking was awarded the title of International Grandmaster in 1971 (at the age of 19) after winning at Vrsac and taking 3rd at Hastings. South American champion at Sao Paulo, zt 1972,
2,5 points ahead of Oscar Panno and Miguel A Quinteros. He won two Interzonal events, Petropolis Interzonal (1973) (without a loss) and Manila Interzonal (1976) (only losing to Spassky). These and other tournament victories vaulted him to third place on FIDE's world rankings list in 1977, behind only World Champion Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi.

In 1979, Mecking was attempting his third consecutive Interzonal victory (Rio de Janerio) when he was forced to withdraw from the tournament, having been stricken with near-fatal illness (myasthenia gravis). It took 12 years for him to recover enough to resume his chess career. He still lives in Brazil and maintains a high rating, although he has not managed to rejoin the world's elite.

pazzed paun: don't forget that later on Korchnoi developed the anti-Mecking counter strategy of wearing a tin foil hat and lining the soles of his shoes with copper coins to block the sapping mindreading rays!
Korchnoi has said that the match with Mecking was most Unpleasant

Nosnibor: <Zanzibar> In the book "Mequinho De Um Genio" by Rubens A.Filguth which is a biography of Mecking on page 31 there is photograph of him dressed in a coat and wearing a tie aged 12 years old in 1964.

disasterion: <‘Which player on the international circuit got on more of his colleagues’ nerves than any other? That’s easy − nine out of ten grandmasters would instantly nominate Henrique Mecking...

Over and over again, Mecking restlessly adjusted half the pieces until each occupied the exact geometric center of its square. It didn’t stop him that the rules forbade this when his opponent’s clock is running.

Nor did he confine his compulsive adjustments to the pieces. He was known to reach over to the other side of the table and line up his opponent’s pen to make it perpendicular to the chessboard edge and equidistant from the scoresheet margins.

His chess, however, was no indication of the tenseness underlying it. His style was classical, serene, positional and logical.’

Ironmanth: Happy birthday, Grandmaster. I thrilled to your games when I was learning chess in the mid 70s. You and other super GMs made me believe in artistry, fight, and ideas. Many happy returns of the day, Henrique!

The Brazilian Chess Championship in his final stage was played in a knock-out format; Henrique Mecking lost his semi-final to GM Krikor Mekhitarian (born to a Brazilian mother and a Lebanese father, both of Armenian descent, and National Champion in 2012).

Alexander Fier, a reputed and popular player at international Open Chess Festivals, then won that final above Mekhitarian convincingly, and is the Brazilian Champion of the year 2017 (crowned in 2018).

LXXXIV Campeonato Brasileiro Absoluto 2017, held from 2018/02/06 to 2018/02/15:

If Mecking wins the national title again for one of the next years, Mecking would realise the longest period between the first and the last national champion title, a record currently held by Viktor Korchnoi with an incredible 51-year span, from 1960 USSR-ch (outright) to 2011 Switzerland-ch (winning in speed play-off vs. GM Gallagher).

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